Takashi Murakami is a Japanese artist born in 1962 from Tokyo. He studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts. His work includes painting, prints, and sculpture, as well as performance pieces, retail collaborations and animation. His self-described “superflat” style is characterised by bright a bright, Pop art colour palette, manga cartoon influence, and glossy surface treatment. His popular visual motifs include anime characters, smiling flowers, mushrooms, skulls, otaku imagery, and Buddhist iconography. In 2007, his first retrospective was organised by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.